


the summer of junior elite

by anakatieskywalker



Series: Olympics! AU [4]
Category: Batgirl (Comics), Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Olympics, Bruce Wayne is a Good Parent, Gen, Gymnast Dick Grayson, Gymnast Stephanie Brown, Gymnastics, Sorry Not Sorry, Summer Olympics, Women's Artistic Gymnastics, literally no one asked for this but here i am delivering it anyway, look steph found bruce before tim did in this and I DONT CARE that its not canon, no editing we die like robins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-27
Updated: 2020-07-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:55:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25556953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anakatieskywalker/pseuds/anakatieskywalker
Summary: Steph's getting older, and her life is getting a little more complicated. With only one reliable parent, they have to figure out a plan for competition season, and Bruce and Crystal come to an agreement.
Relationships: Stephanie Brown & Bruce Wayne, Stephanie Brown & Crystal Brown, Stephanie Brown & Dick Grayson, Stephanie Brown & Jason Todd
Series: Olympics! AU [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1841788
Comments: 3
Kudos: 58





	the summer of junior elite

When Steph is eleven years old, Bruce sends her and Dick out for a night on the town. It’s meant to be fun, teammate bonding. They drag Barbara and Jason along as well, because Bruce is paying. And truly, it is fun, they go to the movies and get popcorn and snacks, and then they go to a diner and everyone’s laughing. 

Maybe it’s a little less fun than normal though, because Steph knows that Bruce is having a serious conversation with her mom. It’s been on the schedule for weeks, Crystal quadruple checked that she had the night off almost every day leading up to it.

It’s killing Steph to not know what’s being said. Of course, she knows what it’s about. Or the gist of it, at least. She’s turning twelve soon, and Bruce and Selina know she’s going to qualify for Junior Elite Gymnastics shortly after that. 

Going Junior Elite is a big deal, that’s when the National Team starts to come looking, and there are competitions all across the country, even across the globe. Steph knows as well as Crystal that they can’t afford it, all the competitions and leotards and travel, Crystal barely tries to hide it from Steph anymore. She’s too tired to, between work and shuttling Steph to practice, and the recent return of Arthur.

Steph felt herself starting to grimace at the thought of her father, he was out on the town every night, racking up lord only knows how much debt. 

On one hand, it made keeping her training from him a lot easier, not that she and Crystal really thought they could permanently keep it a secret if he stayed out of prison this time, but the less he knew about their agreement with Bruce, the better. On the other hand, Steph knew that as soon as Arthur had gone away again, people would be trying to knock down their door to get the money he owed them.

Sometimes, she wished her father would just realize the trouble he causes and wouldn’t come home anymore. It was wishful thinking though, Arthur incurred debt, Crystal paid it, and Steph pretended not to notice how tight money got. It was how her family worked. 

So, a sit down meeting between Crystal and Bruce, without Arthur knowing, was bound to have some interesting details. She just had no clue what those would be.

•••••

The conversation, unbeknownst to Stephanie, revolved around more than just the concept of her becoming a Junior Elite Gymnast. Of course, that was a focal point, and the reason they scheduled the meeting in the first place. But with Steph out of the way and Arthur probably drinking his way through the dive bars downtown, Crystal and Bruce were putting together a plan.

By this time, Crystal had come to terms with the fact that her daughter had some outlandish goals, and that she actually had the potential to achieve them. But she was a mother, and that didn’t stop her from worrying about her child. 

A very large source of Crystal’s worries came from one place: Arthur Brown.

The man was a menace to her bank account, but a lot like smoking, he was a bad habit that was really hard to kick. A part of Crystal always thought that maybe he would come home a changed man, but as every sentencing came to an end, she found that part getting smaller and smaller. Her main concern though, was that Arthur would find a way to sink his claws into Stephanie. 

She desperately wanted to protect her daughter from any potential involvement in Arthur’s schemes, or getting in trouble just from being in the proximity. The city of Gotham had gotten pretty used to filing charges against one Brown, she really would rather they never got the chance to do that with the youngest one. 

That was part of why she’d been okay with accepting Bruce’s charity for the last several years. Because at least she would know exactly where her daughter was, and Bruce was very strict about what was allowed in his gym. A mother’s dreams come true.

The thing about Steph’s dreams was that there could potentially be a lot of money involved, but cashing in on that money could mean kissing any scholarships for the girl to go to college goodbye. 

Yes, Steph’s ultimate goal was to go to the Olympics, but life continues on past the age of sixteen, and her mother’s goal was for her daughter to go to college. So they needed to tread lightly, in order for Steph to continue to be able to chase after gymnastics in college. 

Bruce and his lawyers could handle that, there hadn’t been a need with Dick, because male gymnasts were older, and Dick had preferred the professional circuit anyway. 

The one thing that the firm Bruce’s family had kept on retainer for decades couldn’t do was work their way around guidelines of national and international gymnastics competitions. Normally, a parent would be traveling with the gymnast and their coach to competitions, and be easily on hand if things were to go wrong in any way. 

Steph and Bruce had been making due, but a higher level of competition meant another layer of paperwork, and a coach’s signature could only get them so far. Of course, Crystal couldn’t afford to take off of work to travel for competitions, she could barely afford to take the night off for the meeting. 

She was probably going to pick up another shift later in the week just to make sure they were covered.

It was decided that the best move would be to firm up Bruce’s relationship with Stephanie, as much as Crystal hated admitting that she couldn’t be there for her daughter like she wanted to be. Arthur wouldn’t be much of an obstacle, his rights to make decisions regarding Stephanie dwindling every time he went back to prison. 

So Bruce became one of Steph’s legal guardians, and a room at his family home was opened up and decorated for her to use on nights that Crystal pulled the late shift. 

Steph had been nervous to become part of Bruce’s house at first, worried about what Dick and Jason would think. The older two just ruffled her hair and arranged movie nights when they knew she would be over, joking that she was their new little sister. She never vocalized how great that made her feel, but the boys were pretty sure they understood, with how bright their Sunshine seemed to be when they hung out.

Late one night, Bruce was walking to bed from his home office, where he’d been going over the gym’s finances, when he saw light coming from Steph’s bedroom door. They’d had a hard day at training, her trying to master a new series of flips to use in her floor routine for the next competition, and Dick preparing for his first Olympic Trials coming in a few months. 

Bruce stuck his head in, and smiled at the sight in front of him. Jason, Steph, and Dick were all laying on the girl’s bed, in varying states of unconsciousness, but clearly they had been watching a movie as the end credits were rolling. 

He stepped into the room to turn off the tv, and then he pulled the throw blankets a little higher on the three of them and took the popcorn bowl off the nightstand. Back at the door, he looked at his three kids. Bruce never really planned on being a father to anyone, but he wouldn’t change anything about having his kids in his life. 

**Author's Note:**

> Look I needed to write this so that you guys would know my train of thought here, and this is the best that this part is gonna get. I promise later parts will actually have dialogue and stuff.
> 
> Also I got a little soft with Dad!Bruce feels at the end, whoopsie.
> 
> Stay healthy, take care of each other, and leave me a comment to let me know what you think!!


End file.
